French sculptor, painter and printmaker. Barye was a realist who
dared to present romantically humanized animals as the protagonists
of his sculpture. Although he was a successful monumental sculptor,
he also created a considerable body of small-scale works and often
made multiple casts of his small bronze designs, marketing them for
a middle-class public through a partnership, Barye & Cie. His
interest in animal subjects is also reflected in his many
watercolours. He thus challenged several fundamental values of the
Parisian art world: the entrenched notion of a hierarchy of
subject-matter in art, wherein animals ranked very low; the view
that small-scale sculpture was intrinsically inferior to life-size
or monumental work; and the idea that only a unique example of a
sculptor’s design could embody the highest level of his vision and
craft. As a result of his Romantic notion of sculpture, he won few
monumental commissions and endured near poverty for many years.
Theseus Slaying the Minotaur 1841-46
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